Record-breaking NASA astronaut comes back to Earth

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US astronaut Peggy Whitson came back down to Earth on Sunday with two colleagues, a Russian and an American, following her record-breaking 288-day stay at the International Space Station.

Footage on NASA TV showed a Soyuz module containing Whitson, US astronaut Jack Fischer and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin hitting land in central Kazakhstan at 0122 GMT. Whitson returns to earth as NASA's most experienced US astronaut with 665 days logged in space over a trio of missions.

The Russia's Soyuz MS-04 space capsule landed in central Kazakhstan at the expected time of 0122 GMT. /AFP Photo

According to NASA, the US record she set in April leaves her eighth on the Russian-dominated all-time space endurance list, just behind Yurchikhin who has logged 673 days. During the 57-year-old biochemist's mission at the ISS she also broke the record for the longest-ever spaceflight completed by a woman, eclipsing Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's 199-day mission in June.

Jack "2Fish" Fischer, 43, went into space as a rookie but has won over space-watchers with his boundless enthusiasm during his four-and-a-half months aboard the ISS. He likened the feeling of his spacewalk with Whitson in May, the 200th ISS spacewalk, to a "ginormous fondue pot, bubbling over with piping hot awesome-sauce."

"Heading home soon... I hope I infected a few of you with my passion for space. Never stop learning and growing. I dare you to dream!" he tweeted Friday.

Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson (L), Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos (C) and Fight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA are seen inside the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft shortly after it landed near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. /AFP Photo

The US pair's expected return to the Johnson Space Centre in Houston has been complicated by the deadly floods and storms that have devastated Texas, however. NASA said Friday it was "reviewing" Whitson and Fischer's return "as a result of the impacts of Hurricane Harvey."

Historic rainfall in the region has wrought particular damage on the city of Houston and NASA confirmed that the Johnson Space Center had seen "significant" damage in a Friday tweet.

Mission Control remains "operational" the agency said. The ISS orbits the Earth at a height of about 250 miles (400 kilometers), circling the planet every 90 minutes at a speed of about 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour.

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Source(s): AFP